Bioresource

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A natural material derived from biological origins used as a source of energy, raw materials, or products in various industries such as agriculture, forestry, or biotechnology
2. A biological substance obtained from living organisms that serves as a renewable input for manufacturing, energy production, or ecological purposes
3. Any organic material sourced from plants, animals, or microorganisms that can be utilized for generating bioenergy, bioproducts, or environmental applications

Etymology: The word is a modern compound with a clear, plain history: "bio-" joined to "resource." The first part comes from Ancient Greek "bios," meaning "life," which entered English through scientific coinages such as "biology" in the 19th century. The second part has a longer and more tangled path. "Resource" is built from "re-" (back, again) and "source," and "source" traces back through Old French "sourdre" ("to rise up, spring forth") to Latin "surgere," which means "to rise." So a resource is, at root, something that springs back up or wells forth again, a supply that keeps rising to meet need. Put together, "bioresource" names a supply that comes from living things. The compound is a modern technical coinage rather than an ancient one, and the Greek and Latin pieces were assembled in recent centuries to name a concept that the ancients did not have in this form.

Synonyms: biological resource, biomass, bioasset, biomaterial